Previews

NHL 2005

An exciting new mode and a bit of welcome strategy are added to EA's beloved franchise.

Spiffy:

Free4All mode is a blast; faceoff formations add some more strategy to the game; wraparounds are nice for surprising your opponent.

Iffy:

How many people will actually use the faceoff formations?

When I previewed EA's NHL 2005last week, you might remember that I said there were a few new additions to the game that I wasn't allowed to mention. Although I knew what they were, EA didn't want anything leaked before they announced them to the world at last Thursday's Hot Summer Nights event. At last, I can finally share my secrets with you, the hard-hitting, mullet-sporting fans of the virtual NHL.

The first change might not affect many casual players, but it's a pretty big addition for those who feel that having a good strategy is almost as important as having a fast skater. For the first time in a hockey game, you'll be able to change your team's face-off formation, depending on the situation at hand and how badly you need a goal. Utilizing the right analog stick, you can choose to set your players up in a conservative, standard, or aggressive formation.

Of course, if there wasn't any risk involved, most people would set up in the aggressive position, with one of the wingers closer to the net, prepared to take it in right from the face-off. While this might work occasionally, most of the time the loss of that extra player will give the opposing team a numbers advantage, and they'll be more likely to get a shot off before your team can recover.

In addition to simply changing the formation of the players, you can also do some new things during the face off, including tying up the opposing team's center, as well as kicking the puck free with your skate. My favorite addition, however, might be the ability to take a shot as soon as the puck is dropped, as opposed to pushing it back to one of your defensemen. While the shot will probably not go in, there's an increased chance of a teammate cleaning up the garbage if the goalie doesn't make a clean save.

The other big addition to the game doesn't add any strategy or anything, but it's just plain fun. There has been a new mode added, called Free4All, in which a group of players will play a quick game. The catch, however, is that the game isn't played on a full rink, it's set up on half of the rink, and there's only one goalie. There are two different games to play in the Free4All, the first being On The Clock, in which you must score the most goals in the set time limit. The other mode is called Score Drive, and the player who reaches the required number of goals first is declared the winner.